1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method to output a musical tone, and more particularly to an apparatus and method to output a musical tone according to motion, which divides a space in which a terminal can move into a plurality of subspaces, and matches the subspaces with different musical tones, so that the terminal can output a musical tone matched with a specific subspace when the terminal has moved into the specific subspace.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inertial sensor senses the inertial force of a mass, which is caused by acceleration or angular motion, through deformation of an elastic member connected to the mass, and then outputs an electrical signal corresponding to the deformation of the elastic member by using an appropriate signal processing technology.
With the development of micro-electromechanical systems, it has become possible to miniaturize and mass produce inertial sensors. Inertial sensors are largely classified into acceleration sensors and angular sensors; they have become important in various fields, such as integrated control of vehicle suspension and brake systems, air bag systems, and car navigation systems. Also, the inertial sensor has been utilized as a data input means for portable devices, such as portable position-recognition systems (e.g., portable digital assistants) applied to a mobile intelligent terminal.
Also, in the aerospace field, the inertial sensor has been applied not only to the navigation systems of general airplanes but also to macro-air-vehicles, missile-attitude control systems, personal navigation systems for the military, and others. In addition, the inertial sensor has recently been applied to continuous motion recognition and three-dimensional games in a mobile terminal.
Also, a mobile terminal able to play a percussion instrument according to the motion of the terminal has been developed. Such a mobile terminal recognizes corresponding motions by means of a built-in inertial sensor, and outputs pre-stored percussion instrument tones according to the recognized motions. In this case, the percussion instrument may be selected and determined by the user. In order to play a percussion instrument according to motion, an acceleration sensor has been used to detect motion of a user because it is inexpensive and the size of a component that can be mounted in the mobile terminal is limited.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-76368 discloses a method for detecting a terminal's motion performed by the user and generating a sound in a mobile terminal, which includes a motion-detecting sensor such as a three-dimensional acceleration sensor. That is, according to the disclosed method, the mobile terminal determines a user's motions based on up, down, right, left, front, and rear accelerations, and generates a sound.
However, since the disclosed method is restricted to generating only a sound according to motion, it is difficult for the user to express various sound sources. Therefore, a method for simply and easily generating tones of various (built-in) sound sources is required.